Subject: [Tweeters] Tokeland, Westport and ID help please!
Date: Nov 27 22:31:56 2007
From: Louise Rutter - louise.rutter at eelpi.gotdns.org


Last night, I checked the weather forecast for Westport of mainly cloudy
with showers, decided I could dodge the showers, and headed off this
morning. How delightful that I did, given it turned out constant sunshine.



I spotted red-tailed hawk and American Kestrel on the wires and poles as I
made my way from Raymond to Tokeland, together with large rafts of ducks out
at sea. Binocs gave me wigeon, mallard and pintail - there may have been
more if I'd stopped and scoped, but it's not an easy stretch of road to find
a convenient and safe parking spot.



I officially started birding at Tokeland, checking Graveyard Spit a little
after 11am, where 30 long-billed curlew mixed with the gulls (Western,
hybrids, ring-billed) and some twenty black-bellied plover. Many thanks to
those people who gave me details on the curlew, it was well rewarded!
Tokeland marina was something of a mixed bag, with many birds in low numbers
- the usual several hundred marbled godwit with 9 willets, 15 or so western
grebe, similar numbers of surf scoter, and less than 5 each of mew gull,
bonaparte's gull (including a couple of immatures in classic M-plumage with
dark tail band, nice to see) , eared grebe, horned grebe, greater scaup,
bufflehead, red-breasted merganser, common loon, bufflehead, white-winged
scoter and dowitcher spp. Also a scattering of coot, not a bird I'd normally
go to a marina to see....



I called back at Graveyard spit on my way out Tokeland at 12.30, and it made
me very glad I'd stopped on the inbound leg - the curlew were still there
closer to high tide, just asleep with all their bills tucked away. A glimpse
of curl in the curlew was a rare thing at that point! I saw a probable
merlin fly alongside the road just before Graylands, but it's a tough call
when you're driving and can't reach for the binocs.



Westport marina was relatively quiet. The observation deck at the northern
end was almost deserted (with winds blowing spray right over the sea wall,
I deserted it pretty quickly too), but I found a single common murre and a
couple of double-crested and pelagic cormorant to add to the list. Inside
the marina was largely more of the same as at Tokeland - similar numbers of
western grebe and surf scoters, a few more common loon and red-breasted
mergansers, more horned grebe (but no eared) and a single pure
glaucous-winged gull. The bird count wasn't helped by the fact that float 20
at the northern end is closed for repairs this week.



The wind was rising as the day progressed, and the jetty at Westhaven State
Park was a fairly miserable place, with high tide and high surf. I found two
black turnstones, but any other rockbirds (and I'm sure they were there)
were hunkered down low and still. More cormorants, a lot more surf scoters
and a couple more wigeon, with the beach the exclusive preserve of
sanderling. No snow buntings in the dunes for me.



My penultimate call was at Brady's Oysters, by the bridge just east of
Aberdeen. Twenty-five black turnstones prowled the shell piles behind the
shop for fabulous close looks, along with their single yellow-legged friend,
the mystery bird of the day, which appeared to be in an intermediate
plumage. Any help with ID here appreciated! The location, along with the
turnstones, made me instantly think surfbird, which seemed to be confirmed
by the glimpses of white tail-base and darker terminal band as it preened.



http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v475/eelpi/IMG_2164crop.jpg



But when it finally stopped preening, that *beak* - it seemed far too long
for surfbird, and slightly down-curved, much more like rock sandpiper.



http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v475/eelpi/IMG_2174crop.jpg



But the legs appear too long for rock sandpiper, and possibly too long for
surfbird - what would a juvenile wandering tattler look like? Bear in mind
that all these observations and thoughts come from someone who's never had a
good look at either surfbird or rock sandpiper (or indeed any look at the
latter) and are based entirely on field guides and internet photos.



Last stop of the day was Bottle Beach - much too soon after high tide for
any hope of shorebirds, I was hunting for passerines. Sadly, the workmen
have really taken over. The truck with trailer and their shredded bark piles
were taking up the entire parking area, forcing me to park in the little
pull-out fifty yards along the road, and the quad bike tearing up and down
the path and pulling up nearby reeds killed much chance of passerines. I
gained only a couple of marsh wren.



Still, it was a beautiful day, with at least one life bird, and possibly
two, depending on the identity of my mystery creature!



Louise Rutter

Kirkland